RE Partners, a technology consulting firm headquartered in New York, is working to bring more women into the emerging intelligent enterprise space to make it more diverse talent-wise and foster further innovation in the sector.
RE Partners is a woman-owned company, with CEO Valerie Kogan as majority shareholder. Growing up, she dreamt of becoming a musician and studied for a classical music degree at the elite Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia. However, she shifted careers into technology and moved to the US almost 30 years ago. She co-founded the company in 2019 with chief revenue officer Alex Gikher, both of them each having around 25 years experience in technology. Alex has 20 years experience working for the market leader in enterprise application software.
The company opened its doors as a professional services company for large enterprise clients just a few months before the global outbreak of COVID-19, which dealt a massive blow to the business. Unable to meet potential clients, RE Partners had to reinvent its business and communication strategies so soon after its inception, and it had to quickly adapt to the new business reality ushered in by the pandemic.
Despite initial hardships, RE Partners was able to attract clients and grow its business. From 2021 onward, it was able to double its size and revenue, reaching around $20 million. It now has close to 400 consultants in 36 countries, with two overseas legal entities in Turkiye and Argentina, which act as central hubs for its EMEA and Latin American practices.
According to Kogan, RE Partners has multiple programs internally and in partnership with its clients to promote women in technology, giving them the incredible opportunity to gain important skills, especially as the business landscape moves towards intelligent enterprise. She says it is incredibly important to integrate women's and other minorities' points of view into technology, especially in the areas of design, user experience, and product development. RE Partners make aspirations attainable.
Kogan says RE Partners is involved in a program with Turkiye's technology ministry, where it committed to help elevate the country's engineering landscape by making it more diverse, bringing in overseas expertise to improve the local talent pool, including women.
“We want to bring more women into technology and intelligent enterprise not just for the sake of it. It's also because women have so much more to bring to the table. They come from all walks of life – different cultures, languages, religions, and backgrounds – each bringing their unique perspectives and skills that will strengthen not just our organization, but also others, to ensure we do better together. RE Partners champions the champions, we help women to enter the field of technology, whether they are from a different industry or just out of school, and train them to become top-notch professionals who are in great demand right now,” Kogan says.
RE Partners also supports two nonprofit – anti-human trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, which provides free services to assist people with MS and their families. According to RE Partners, it will donate from the top-line revenue of every contract to these organizations or to a foundation or charity of the client's choice.
Moving forward, RE Partners will establish an intelligent enterprise practice, which focuses on cutting-edge technologies and moves beyond the legacy enterprise resource planning systems being used by most businesses today. The company estimates that it will become a significant part of its business in the next two to three years, allowing it to double or triple its revenue.
“This is a new strategy within our organization, which specifically builds business and technology expertise dedicated to the transformation of organizations towards intelligent enterprise. We believe that our white-glove, boutique approach to clients and our expert consultants are going to be the key differentiator in RE Partners' and service offering for clients that want to adopt intelligent enterprise,” Kogan says.
Media contact:
Name: Valerie Kogan & Alex Gikher
Email: [email protected]
